Wilma Rockets Towards Florida
Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida and grew stronger, threatening residents with 110-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast.
After crawling slowly through the Caribbean for several days, Wilma pulled away from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as a Category 2 storm and, forecasters said, began picking up speed "like a rocket" as it headed toward the U.S. mainland.
The storm is expected to make landfall around dawn Monday, making a direct impact on the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area, said CBS News hurricane expert Brian Norcross. He said the most vulnerable area is the Keys, where water could accumulate in Florida Bay,
At 8 p.m. Sunday, Wilma's winds were just 1 mph shy of Category 3 status. As the storm crossed the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said they saw no evidence of wind shear that they hoped would reduce the hurricane's intensity before it makes landfall in southwest Florida.
The southern half of the state was under a hurricane warning, and an estimated 160,000 residents were told to evacuate, although many in the low-lying Keys island chain decided to stay.
"I cannot emphasize enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys: A hurricane is coming," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "Perhaps people are saying, 'I'm going to hunker down.' They shouldn't do that. They should evacuate, and there's very little time left to do so."
CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that emergency officials in the Florida Keys are making a last-ditch effort to evacuate people
"The biggest concern is I don't think a whole lot of people evacuated," Capt. Robert Peryam with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department told Regan. "People waited so long on this storm they are taking it lightly."
With the area in the path of three hurricanes in two months, Regan reports
Forecasters expected flooding from a storm surge of up to 15 feet on Florida's southwest coast and 8 feet in the Keys. Tornados were possible in some areas through Monday.
Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, predicted Wilma would dramatically pick up speed as it approached Florida.
"It's really going to take off like a rocket," he said. "It's going to start moving like 20 mph."
Wilma would mark Florida's eighth hurricane since August 2004 and the fourth evacuation of the Keys this year.
Only about 20 percent of the Keys' 78,000 residents fled, according to Billy Wagner, senior emergency management director for Monroe County.
"If they don't get out of there, they're going to be in deep trouble," he said.
CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports that in downtown Naples, locals lingered over their breakfast inside a
"We think we'd rather stay here and take our chances, really," resident Wendie Brew told Acosta.
There was sunshine Sunday morning in the Keys and even some recreational boaters as many residents went about their normal routines.
"We were born and raised with storms, so we never leave," Ann Ferguson said from her front porch in Key West. "What happens, happens. If you believe in the Lord, you don't have no fear."
Some 100 Key West parishioners attended mass at a Catholic church where a grotto built in the 1920s is said to provide protection from dangerous storms. Ray Price took his usual stroll down Duval Street to check out the ocean.
"Another day in paradise," Price said.
Tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph were expected to begin lashing the state late Sunday, and the core of the hurricane was forecast to slice across the peninsula Monday, speeding northeast at up to 25 mph.
Gov. Bush said state officials expected heavy rain and widespread power outages. The National Guard was on alert, and state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals if needed, spokesman Butch Kinerney said.
"We're ready for Wilma and, whatever the storm brings, we're set to go," Kinerney said.
Wilma killed at least three people along Mexico's Caribbean coast, where resort hotel lobbies were gutted and 3 feet of water blocked highways. Then the storm made a hard turn east toward Florida and gained speed.
Because the storm was expected to move so swiftly across Florida, residents of Atlantic coast cities such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale were likely to face hurricane-force winds nearly as strong as those on the Gulf Coast.
George Delgado of Miami was still covering the windows of his house with plywood Sunday. He said he waited until the last minute to make sure the hours of work were necessary.
"I was hoping it would turn some other way," Delgado said.
Weary forecasters also monitored Tropical Depression Alpha, which formed Saturday off the Dominican Republic and was briefly a tropical storm, the record 22nd named storm for the Atlantic season. It was the first time the hurricane center exhausted the regular list of names and had to turn to the Greek alphabet.
Alpha was not considered a threat to the United States.
On Florida's Gulf Coast, evacuation orders covered barrier islands and coastal areas in Collier and Lee counties, such as Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel and parts of Naples.
About 3,500 people were in shelters across the state, including roughly 850 people at the Germain Arena near Fort Myers, where evacuees pitched tents and set out mat on the ice rink where a minor-league hockey team plays. Cots and sleeping bags lined hallways outside the rink.
Jean Moore of Fort Myers found a spot near the restroom. She was worried about coming to an arena after seeing the bedlam at the New Orleans Superdome during Hurricane Katrina.
"After New Orleans and all the horror stories that came out of that facility, I'm surprised to find things so calm here," she said. "As you can see, even the children are calm. They're not rowdy or screaming. I'm just amazed at how quiet it is."